Overview

Apache's In 2008, the North Sea region produced 21.9 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe), approximately 11 percent of Apache’s total production, generated slightly more than $2.1 billion in revenue and accounted for approximately 8 percent of company estimated year-end proved reserves.

Apache invested $459 million on drilling and workovers along with facility enhancement projects. We drilled 14 wells, 12 of which were producers, and performed 25 workovers. A number of key projects were completed and commissioned. Foremost among these was the reconfiguration of the production import header on Charlie platform. Instabilities in the old system were responsible for numerous disruptions termed, “cease exports” (i.e., short-duration field shutdowns). Through March 31, Forties operated for 195 consecutive days without a cease export, a significant improvement from averages of 10 days in 2006, 16 days in 2007, and 33 days for 2008.

The region also completed expansion of high-pressure gas-lift compression projects on the Alpha and Delta platforms, a large produced water reinjection system on the Charlie platform and replacement of the infield pipeline between the Bravo and Charlie platforms. Investments in facility upgrades and integrity-related projects over the past five years have significantly improved the field’s uptime efficiency.

Apache’s exploration drilling at Forties has focused on the Central Graben, Moray Firth and Viking Graben regions. Eight exploration wells and four appraisal wells resulted in oil discoveries at Bacchus, NW Bravo, Phoenix and Polecat. Pre-development studies are in progress for the Bacchus discovery and additional appraisal drilling will be required at Phoenix and Polecat to determine their commerciality. Current exploration focus is near-Forties Jurassic oil targets.

 Forties field 

First-quarter 2009 production averaged 60,940 barrels of oil equivalent (Boe) per day, a decrease of 2 percent from the fourth quarter 2008 but an increase of 3 percent relative to the first quarter a year ago. The production drop relative to the fourth quarter was caused primarily by planned downtime for separator overhauls on Delta platform along with unplanned pipeline repairs on Alpha and Charlie platforms. Before repair downtime, production was up 1,800 Boe per day.

During the first quarter, three new wells were brought online and commercial oil pay was logged in a fourth, which will be brought online early in the second quarter. These three producers added average production of 4,870 Boe per day during the first quarter. The FA4-5 well encountered 26 meters of oil pay and started production in January. Current rate from this well is over 5,000 Boe per day.

Production efficiency for Forties averaged 91 percent during the first quarter, representing a 34 percent field-wide gain since 2003.

Development drilling to access bypassed and unswept oil will continue in Forties. Targets are generated through extensive use of 4-D (time-lapse) seismic and AVO-inversion techniques which monitor fluid saturation and movement within the reservoir. Traditional development geology and reservoir engineering techniques are also used. Currently, we have approximately 60 targets ranging in size from less than 0.5 MMboe to 1.5 MMboe, with the majority less than 1 MMboe.